Doesn’t this look like a well-romped yard? Chappy has certainly tried to get paw prints just about everywhere!

I think today was the last play day in the snow, though … it depends on tomorrow’s weather, of course, but some spots are almost tramped down to grass now, and if it warms up even a little, it’s going to be muddy … so, no more romping. He has absolutely loved it, though. I swear, his tail not only doesn’t stop, it doesn’t even slow down while he’s out there.

I had the munchies after dinner tonight, but there really wasn’t anything in the kitchen to snack on. Cake is really my favorite thing, or homemade bread or muffins–I can’t eat ice cream because of the asthma, don’t love the salty chip thing (or at least, not all the time), but, well … I wanted something sweet. So, I did this. Took two shortbread cookies out of the draw. Added a spoonful of raspberry sauce. (That’s pureed frozen raspberries with the seeds strained out.) A tiny bit of vanilla ice cream. A drizzle of Hershey’s syrup. A couple chocolate chips, and a dab of whipped cream. It doesn’t have enough ice cream to be a Sundae. Dad called it a Saturday.

Tasty, too! But naturally I had to come back upstairs to get my camera.

Now, speaking of romping. One of the Ravelers in the MVFF group (whose brand-new blog is here) has the cutest ravatar–a picture of herself from first grade. Well, obviously we’re close in age because her picture reminds me of myself at the same age.

This was my first grade picture. My hair was already getting dark, and my bangs are too short … but it’s funny. Looking at it, I have to tell you that I get that exact expression on my face a lot. It’s an awful lot of brown, though, huh? But then, this would have been 1972, so, I suppose that’s to be expected.

Then there’s this one. I think I was 4 in this picture. It was on a day (I think?) when my older sister was getting her school pictures taken so, since I wanted MINE taken but wasn’t in school yet, Mom took me to a local department store for it. I was SO excited. I still remember waking up early and getting dressed in my best dress and sitting VERY STILL while I waited for Mom to (finally) wake up and for us all to have breakfast so we could GO already… Needless to say, we were the first ones at the store, and the photographer started his spiel to coax me to smile, and I didn’t need any encouragement at ALL. I still remember it so clearly, I was so darn happy. So … this would have been about 1970.

But then, speaking of dresses I loved when I was little…

This dress. I adored this dress. Now, when I was little, I was convinced that I had been a pilgrim in an earlier life. You know, like the ones that sailed on the Mayflower. And in the early 1970s, this dress was about as close to a “pilgrim” dress as I could manage. And no, you don’t have to tell me–it looks like nothing a Puritan would be caught flying to the gates of hell wearing, but I was 5. I didn’t have a lot of options, and it had the wide collar, so I was happy. (This picture, incidentally, was of the first day of school and luckily Mom snapped this one, because when the bus came, all she got was a picture of my shoe as I ran onto the bus. No teary goodbyes for me! I couldn’t wait.)

But, back to the dress. I called it my Pilgrim dress, and when I wore it, tried my very best to be as “Pilgrim” as possible. So, when I wore it for my Kindergarten school picture…

I brushed my bangs flat with a part and sat resolutely with this tiny, prim little smile, no matter how hard the school’s photographer tried to get me to smile. Mom almost killed me when we got the proofs. (“What did you do to your hair? Why didn’t you smile?”) She admits NOW, though, that it’s a great picture, because it’s ME. My stubborn Pilgrim-ness right there for all the world to see. (And, honestly, it took great stubbornness to not smile for the photographer. Obviously, I was not camera shy, huh?)

How about showing YOUR school pictures from first grade? I bet you were ADORABLE!

Consider it a meme, if you like!

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